The Holy Spirit-The Comforter E-Book

John Owen

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: The Complete Works of John Owen
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Crossway Introduces the Collected Works of John Owen, Updated for Modern Readers Regarded as one of the greatest theologians in history, 17th-century pastor John Owen remains influential among those interested in Puritan and Reformed theology. The Complete Works of John Owen brings together all of Owen's original theological writing, including never-before-published work, reformatted for modern readers in 40 user-friendly volumes. Volume 8, The Holy Spirit—The Comforter, includes the treatises "The Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer," "The Holy Spirit as a Comforter," and "A Discourse of Spiritual Gifts." Each treatise has been edited by Puritan scholar Andrew Ballitch. Released over a number of years, The Complete Works of John Owen will inspire a new generation of Bible readers and scholars to deeper faith.   - Edited and Formatted for Modern Readers: Presents Owen's original work, newly typeset with outlines, text breaks, headings, and footnotes - Informative New Introductions: Provide historical, theological, and personal context - Supporting Resources Enhance Reading: Include extensive annotations with sources, definitions, and translations of ancient languages - Part of the Complete Works of John Owen Collection: Will release 40 hardcover volumes over a number of years - Perfect for Churches and Schools: Ideal for students, pastors, theologians, and those interested in the Holy Spirit and the Puritans

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The Complete Works of John Owen

The Complete Works of John Owen

The Trinity

Vol. 1  Communion with God

Vol. 2  The Trinity Defended: Part 1

Vol. 3  The Trinity Defended: Part 2

Vol. 4  The Person of Christ

Vol. 5  The Holy Spirit—His Person and Work: Part 1

Vol. 6  The Holy Spirit—His Person and Work: Part 2

Vol. 7  The Holy Spirit—The Helper

Vol. 8  The Holy Spirit—The Comforter

The Gospel

Vol. 9  The Death of Christ

Vol. 10  Sovereign Grace and Justice

Vol. 11  Justification by Faith Alone

Vol. 12  The Saints’ Perseverance: Part 1

Vol. 13  The Saints’ Perseverance: Part 2

Vol. 14  Apostasy from the Gospel

The Christian Life

Vol. 15  Sin and Temptation

Vol. 16  An Exposition of Psalm 130

Vol. 17  Heavenly-Mindedness

Vol. 18  Sermons and Tracts from the Civil Wars (1646–1649)

Vol. 19  Sermons from the Commonwealth and Protectorate (1650–1659)

Vol. 20  Sermons from the Early Restoration Years (1669–1675)

Vol. 21  Sermons from the Later Restoration Years (1676–1682)

Vol. 22  Miscellaneous Sermons and Lectures

The Church

Vol. 23  The Nature of the Church: Part 1

Vol. 24  The Nature of the Church: Part 2

Vol. 25  The Church Defended: Part 1

Vol. 26  The Church Defended: Part 2

Vol. 27  The Church’s Worship

Vol. 28  The Church, the Scriptures, and the Sacraments

Hebrews

Vol. 29  An Exposition of Hebrews: Part 1, Introduction to Hebrews

Vol. 30  An Exposition of Hebrews: Part 2, Christ’s Priesthood and the Sabbath

Vol. 31  An Exposition of Hebrews: Part 3, Jesus the Messiah

Vol. 32  An Exposition of Hebrews: Part 4, Hebrews 1–2

Vol. 33  An Exposition of Hebrews: Part 5, Hebrews 3–4

Vol. 34  An Exposition of Hebrews: Part 6, Hebrews 5–6

Vol. 35  An Exposition of Hebrews: Part 7, Hebrews 7–8

Vol. 36  An Exposition of Hebrews: Part 8, Hebrews 9–10

Vol. 37  An Exposition of Hebrews: Part 9, Hebrews 11–13

Latin Works

Vol. 38  The Study of True Theology

Shorter Works

Vol. 39  The Shorter Works of John Owen

Indexes

Vol. 40  Indexes

The Complete Works of John Owen

The Trinity

Volume 8

The Holy Spirit—

The Comforter

John Owen

Introduced and Edited by

Andrew S. Ballitch

General Editors

Lee Gatiss and Shawn D. Wright

The Holy Spirit—The Comforter

Copyright © 2023 by Crossway

Published by Crossway1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Jordan Singer

Cover image: Custom marble paper by Vanessa Reynoso, Marble Paper Studio

First printing 2023

Printed in China

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

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Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4335-6021-7 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-8579-1 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-8577-7 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-8578-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Owen, John, 1616-1683, author. | Ballitch, Andrew S., editor.

Title: The Holy Spirit : the Comforter / introduced and edited by Andrew S. Ballitch, Lee Gatiss and Shawn D. Wright, general editors.

Other titles: Pneumatologia. Books VII-IX

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2023. | Series: The complete works of John Owen ; 8 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022011798 (print) | LCCN 2022011799 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433560217 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781433585777 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433585784 (mobipocket) | ISBN 9781433585791 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Holy Spirit—Early works to 1800

Classification: LCC BT121.3 .O938 2022 (print) | LCC BT121.3 (ebook) | DDC 231/.3—dc23/eng/20220615

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022011798

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022011799

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Volume 8

Contents

Works Preface

Editor’s Introduction

The Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer

The Holy Spirit as a Comforter

A Discourse of Spiritual Gifts

General Index

Scripture Index

Works Preface

John Owen (1616–1683) is one of the most significant, influential, and prolific theologians that England has ever produced. His work is of such a high caliber that it is no surprise to find it still in demand more than four centuries after his birth. As a son of the Church of England, a Puritan preacher, a statesman, a Reformed theologian and Bible commentator, and later a prominent Nonconformist and advocate of toleration, he is widely read and appreciated by Christians of different types all over the globe, not only for the profundity of his thinking but also for the depth of his spiritual insight.

Owen was born in the year that William Shakespeare died, and in terms of his public influence, he was a rising star in the 1640s and at the height of his power in the 1650s. As chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, dean of Christ Church, and vice-chancellor of Oxford University, he wielded a substantial degree of power and influence within the short-lived English republic. Yet he eventually found himself on the losing side of the epic struggles of the seventeenth century and was ousted from his position of national preeminence. The Act of Uniformity in 1662 effectively barred him from any role in the established church, yet it was in the wilderness of those turbulent post-Restoration years that he wrote many of his most momentous contributions to the world of theological literature, despite being burdened by opposition, persecution, family tragedies, and illness.

There was an abortive endeavor to publish a uniform edition of Owen’s works in the early eighteenth century, but this progressed no further than a single folio volume in 1721. A century later (1826), Thomas Russell met with much more success when he produced a collection in twenty-one volumes. The appetite for Owen only grew; more than three hundred people had subscribed to the 1721 and 1826 editions of his works, but almost three thousand subscribed to the twenty-four-volume set produced by William H. Goold from 1850 onward. That collection, with Goold’s learned introductions and notes, became the standard edition. It was given a new lease on life when the Banner of Truth Trust reprinted it several times beginning in 1965, though without some of Owen’s Latin works, which had appeared in Goold’s edition, or his massive Hebrews commentary, which Banner did eventually reprint in 1991. Goold corrected various errors in the original seventeenth- and eighteenth-century publications, some of which Owen himself had complained of, as well as certain grammatical errors. He thoroughly revised the punctuation, numeration of points, and Scripture references in Owen and presented him in a way acceptable to nineteenth-century readers without taking liberties with the text.

Since the mid-nineteenth century, and especially since the reprinting of Goold’s edition in the mid-twentieth century, there has been a great flowering of interest in seventeenth-century Puritanism and Reformed theology. The recent profusion of scholarship in this area has resulted in a huge increase of attention given to Owen and his contribution to these movements. The time has therefore come to attempt another presentation of Owen’s body of work for a new century. This new edition is more than a reprint of earlier collections of Owen’s writings. As useful as those have been to us and many others, they fail to meet the needs of modern readers who are often familiar with neither the theological context nor the syntax and rhetorical style of seventeenth-century English divinity.

For that reason, we have returned again to the original editions of Owen’s texts to ensure the accuracy of their presentation here but have conformed the spelling to modern American standards, modernized older verb endings, reduced the use of italics where they do not clarify meaning, updated some hyphenation forms, modernized capitalization both for select terms in the text and for titles of Owen’s works, refreshed the typesetting, set lengthy quotations in block format, and both checked and added Scripture references in a consistent format where necessary. Owen’s quotations of others, however, including the various editions of the Bible he used or translated, are kept as they appear in his original. His marginal notes and footnotes have been clearly marked in footnotes as his (with “—Owen” appearing at the end of his content) to distinguish them from editorial comments. Foreign languages such as Greek, Hebrew, and Latin (which Owen knew and used extensively) have been translated into modern English, with the original languages retained in footnotes for scholarly reference (also followed by “—Owen”). If Goold omitted parts of the original text in his edition, we have restored them to their rightful place. Additionally, we have attempted to regularize the numbering system Owen employed, which was often imprecise and inconsistent; our order is 1, (1), [1], {1}, and 1st. We have also included various features to aid readers’ comprehension of Owen’s writings, including extensive introductions and outlines by established scholars in the field today, new paragraph breaks marked by a pilcrow (¶), chapter titles and appropriate headings (either entirely new or adapted from Goold), and explanatory footnotes that define archaic or obscure words and point out scriptural and other allusions in the text. On the rare occasions when we have added words to the text for readability, we have clearly marked them using square brackets. Having a team of experts involved, along with the benefit of modern online database technology, has also enabled us to make the prodigious effort to identify sources and citations in Owen that Russell and Goold deliberately avoided or were unable to locate for their editions.

Owen did not use only one English translation of the Bible. At various times, he employed the Great Bible, the Geneva Bible, the Authorized Version (KJV), and his own paraphrases and translations from the original languages. We have not sought to harmonize his biblical quotations to any single version. Similarly, we have left his Hebrew and Greek quotations exactly as he recorded them, including the unpointed Hebrew text. When it appears that he has misspelled the Hebrew or Greek, we have acknowledged that in a footnote with reference to either Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia or Novum Testamentum Graece.

This new edition presents fresh translations of Owen’s works that were originally published in Latin, such as his Θεολογούμενα Παντοδαπά (1661) and A Dissertation on Divine Justice (which Goold published in an amended eighteenth-century translation). It also includes certain shorter works that have never before been collected in one place, such as Owen’s prefaces to other people’s works and many of his letters, with an extensive index to the whole set.

Our hope and prayer in presenting this new edition of John Owen’s complete works is that it will equip and enable new generations of readers to appreciate the spiritual insights he accumulated over the course of his remarkable life. Those with a merely historical interest will find here a testimony to the exceptional labors of one extraordinary figure from a tumultuous age, in a modern and usable critical edition. Those who seek to learn from Owen about the God he worshiped and served will, we trust, find even greater riches in his doctrine of salvation, his passion for evangelism and missions, his Christ-centered vision of all reality, his realistic pursuit of holiness, his belief that theology matters, his concern for right worship and religious freedom, and his careful exegetical engagement with the text of God’s word. We echo the words of the apostle Paul that Owen inscribed on the title page of his book Χριστολογία (1679), “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ” (Phil. 3:8).

Lee Gatiss

Cambridge, England

Shawn D. Wright

Louisville, Kentucky, United States

Editor’s Introduction

Andrew S. Ballitch

For a full introduction to volumes 7 and 8, see the introduction to volume 7. The following introduces key features of volume 8 in particular.

Owen’s Treatises

The Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer (1682)1

Owen’s treatise on prayer is an attack on set forms of prayer and an argument for free (unwritten and unmemorized) prayer. As previously noted, Owen felt compelled to write on the subject in response to Hugh Cressy’s rather abrasive dismissal of the Reformed Protestant position in his The Church-History of Brittany. But Owen’s project is larger than merely an apologetic against the Church of Rome and its false worship flowing from its composed prayers. Two ideas dominate. Prayers of human composure in the national Restoration Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer and the neglect of prayer among other churches are Owen’s twin concerns.

Owen begins by asserting the necessity, benefit, and use of prayer in general. This goes without saying, in fact. No true religion exists without prayer. All religion consists principally in prayer. And so the design of his discourse, in Owen’s own words, is that when it comes to prayer, “nothing more requisite in our religion than that true apprehensions of its nature and use be preserved in the minds of men, the declaration and defense of them, when they are opposed and unduly traduced, is not only justifiable but necessary also.” Owen understands prayer according to the Spirit to be under attack by the imposition of liturgical forms.

The questions Owen seeks to answer include the nature of the work of the Spirit in aiding and assisting believers in their praying according to the mind of God and the effects and fruit of that work. The sum of what he pleads, from Scripture and experience, is this:

Whereas God has graciously promised his Holy Spirit, as a Spirit of grace and supplications, unto them that do believe, enabling them to pray according to his mind and will, in all the circumstances and capacities wherein they are, or which they may be called unto, it is the duty of them who are enlightened with the truth hereof to expect those promised aids and assistances in and unto their prayers, and to pray according to the ability which they receive thereby.2

After summarizing his claim, he lays out eight general principles, which warrant enumerating, since they serve as a foundation for the treatise as a whole:

1. It is the duty of every person to pray for himself or herself. The existence of God simply demands it.

2. It is the duty of some to pray for others. Here, Owen is thinking of fathers, husbands, pastors, and the like.

3. Whoever prays is obligated to pray as well as possible.

4. And the best prayer includes intense, sincere actings of our minds through the greatest assistance we can attain.

5. The duty of prayer is achievable with the aid of God himself.

6. God expressly commands his people to pray, but not to compose written prayers for themselves, much less others.

7. Assistance is promised to believers to enable them to pray according to the will of God. However, at the same time, no help is promised for composing prayers for others.

8. Prayers given in Scripture have everlasting use but give no warrant for compositions unto the same end. This final principle leads Owen to the dominant topic in his preface, an earnest plea against set forms of prayer.

Owen stops short of determining set forms of prayer as inherently sinful, absolutely unlawful, or entirely vitiating of acceptable worship, but neither does he have anything positive to say about them. Taking the Missal (or Roman Catholic Mass book) as a case study, he highlights the abuses and corruptions engendered by liturgical forms. While the Missal’s development was slow, it eventually imposed worship of human composure as divine and brought with it several unfortunate results. One was the doctrines of the Mass and transubstantiation. The Church of Rome came to believe what it first admitted in prayer. This theology of the Lord’s Supper could not have conceivably developed without enforceable set forms of prayer. Another disastrous result was the rise of arbitrary ceremonies that came to adorn the devised prayer forms, leading to superstition and idolatrous practices. A third calamitous outcome was the imposition of the Missal, enforced at times even to the point of death. These consequences further served as catalysts for the cessation of true spiritual and ministerial gifts.

Owen proceeds to build upon the foundation laid in his preface in three movements. In chapters 1–3, he details the biblical evidence for true prayer. Chapters 4–7 exposit the nature of the Spirit’s work. And then chapters 8–9 draw out the duties associated with the Spirit’s gift of prayer. Owen concludes the treatise with two separate discussions, one on what he calls “mental prayer” and one on prescribed forms, in chapters 10–11, which are significant for historical context and will be handled briefly in turn.

Chapter 1: The Use of Prayer, and the Work of the Holy Spirit Therein

In chapter 1, Owen reasserts the duty of prayer, narrows his subject to the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit in prayer, and argues for the significant relevance of the topic. He observes that the great animosity between different groups on the issue of prayer arises from the fact that prayer is the hinge on which all other differences concerning worship depend. By looking in detail at two passages of Scripture, Owen evinces “that there is promised and actually granted a special work of the Spirit of God in the prayers or praises of believers under the New Testament.”

Chapter 2: Zechariah 12:10 Opened and Vindicated

Zechariah 12:10 is the passage upon which Owen’s treatise is built. The manner of the fulfillment of what is promised—namely, “the Spirit of grace and supplications”—is expressed by “I will pour out.” The pouring out of God’s Spirit will be plentiful in the days of the gospel. The promise is addressed to the whole church. The Spirit is efficiently the Spirit of supplication in two ways. One, “by working gracious inclinations and dispositions in us unto this duty.” Two, “by giving a gracious ability for the discharge of it in a due manner.” For Owen, Zechariah 12:10, properly understood, proves “that God has promised under the New Testament to give unto believers, in a plentiful manner or measure, the Spirit of grace and of supplications, or his own Holy Spirit, enabling them to pray according to his mind and will.” Next, Owen turns his attention to the witness of the New Testament.

Chapter 3: Galatians 4:6 Opened and Vindicated

Galatians 4:6 reports the fulfillment of the Old Testament promise and expresses the nature of the Spirit’s work in prayer. Believers are the subjects of the bestowal of the Spirit’s gift, which is the enabling of adopted sons and daughters to act like just that, children of God. What Owen claims from this passage is this: The Spirit “does actually incline, dispose, and enable them to cry ‘Abba, Father,’ or to call upon God in prayer as their Father by Jesus Christ.” Having exegetically underpinned the reality of the Spirit’s role in legitimate prayer, Owen turns to a detailed exposition of the nature of the Spirit’s work.

Chapter 4: The Nature of Prayer

In chapter 4, Owen outlines human deficiency with regard to the practice of prayer, explaining Romans 8:26. He begins with a definition of prayer, which he articulates as “a gift, ability, or spiritual faculty of exercising faith, love, reverence, fear, delight, and other graces, in a way of vocal requests, supplications, and praises unto God.” The fact is, the Spirit supplies and furnishes the mind with what ought to be prayed for in general and in particular. Moreover, without the special aid of the Holy Spirit, none of us knows what to properly pray for. We do not have any accurate estimation of what we need, no conception of the promises of God, which are the measure of prayer, no grasp of the end, goal, or purpose of prayer. The Spirit must supply both the matter and the manner of prayer.

Chapter 5: The Work of the Holy Spirit as to the Matter of Prayer

Owen describes the Spirit’s resource of the matter of prayer in chapter 5. In short, “he alone does, and he alone is able to give us such an understanding of our own wants as that we may be able to make our thoughts about them known unto God in prayer and supplication.” According to Owen, the principal matter concerns faith and unbelief. Human beings have no conception of either the deprivation of their nature or the grace of God apart from the work of the Spirit. Regarding humanity’s perception of this deprivation of nature and the grace of God, Owen memorably states, “Nature is blind, and cannot see them; it is proud, and will not own them; stupid, and is senseless of them.” The Spirit acquaints us not only with an impression of our needs but also with the grace and mercy prepared in the promises of God for our relief. These are the measure of prayer, the boundaries within which we pray. Owen argues, “We must pray with our understanding, that is, understand what we pray for. And these things are no other but what God has promised, which if we are not regulated by in our supplications, we ask amiss.” Finally, the Spirit supplies the end of prayer. In other words, he guides and directs believers to petition from the right motivations and for proper purposes—namely, the glory of God and the improvement of holiness. In sum, the Spirit teaches believers what to pray for as they ought by furnishing and filling their minds with the matter of prayer.

Chapter 6: The Due Manner of Prayer, Wherein It Does Consist

After supplying the matter of prayer, the Spirit works the manner of prayer in the believer. This consists in the realm of the will and affections. The two are inseparable, for prayer by definition is the obedient acting of the whole soul toward God. The Spirit again does what individuals are unable to do themselves. He conforms the will and works affection in believers suitable for what they are praying about; therefore, he is the fountain of inexpressible fervency and delight. Delight in God as the object of prayer consists in three main things. First, the sight or prospect of God on his throne of grace, ready through Jesus Christ to dispense mercy to supplicant sinners. Second, a sense of God’s relation unto us as Father. Third, the boldness and confidence that we have in our access to God in the act of prayer. Delight also flows from a focus on Christ, our access to the Father, the only way and means of our acceptance with God. The Spirit is as much behind how the Christian prays as he is the source of the content of those prayers.

Chapter 7: The Nature of Prayer in General, with Respect unto Forms of Prayer and Vocal Prayer

Chapter 7 concludes Owen’s section on the nature of prayer with a discussion of Ephesians 6:18. Here, Paul does not reference praying by an extraordinary or miraculous gift; rather, praying in the Spirit is the constant duty of all believers, which also illegitimates set forms of prayer. Answering the question “how they are enabled to pray in whose minds the Holy Ghost does thus work as a Spirit of grace and supplication” speaks to both of these faulty notions of prayer. Owen answers the question in brief this way: “Those who are thus affected by him do never want a gracious ability of making their addresses unto God in vocal prayer, so far as is needful unto them in their circumstances, callings, states, and conditions.” As a result, set forms are absolutely unnecessary for the believer. And as for the argument that set forms benefit the unregenerate, Owen has another answer: Those unregenerate persons who are given over to sin cry out only when they are in distress. For these people, set forms serve like a charm. Others who attend to prayer out of duty, if their desire becomes sincere, would be hindered by set forms. In all cases, “it cannot be denied but that the constant and unvaried use of set forms of prayer may become a great occasion of quenching the Spirit, and hindering all progress or growth in gifts or graces,” just as “those who will never enter the water but with flags or bladders under them will scarce ever learn to swim.” Owen will return to prescribed prayer forms in the final chapter of his treatise, but his flow of argument at this point moves from the reality and nature of true prayer to the resulting duties.

Chapter 8: The Duty of External Prayer by Virtue of a Spiritual Gift Explained and Vindicated

Having expressed the internal, spiritual nature of the duty already, and the exercise of the Spirit’s grace therein, Owen transitions to prayer’s external performance in chapter 8. His point is this:

There is a spiritual ability given unto men by the Holy Ghost, whereby they are enabled to express the matter of prayer, as taught and revealed in the manner before described, in words fitted and suited to lead on their own minds and the minds of others unto a holy communion in the duty, to the honor of God and their own edification.

So even the words prayed are from the Spirit and therefore are unprescribed. The argument proceeds this way: All people are obligated to pray as they are able, according to their condition, relations, occasion, and duty. All examples of prayer in Scripture are unprescribed. Every command in Scripture to pray is according to one’s abilities. And ability includes the conscientious, diligent use of all means—involving the searching of both the heart and the Scriptures—which God has ordained to improve prayer. Abilities also include natural talents of invention, memory, and elocution. Yet external prayer is a gift. Words and expression are an adjunct of the internal gift discussed thus far in Owen’s treatise.

Chapter 9: Duties Inferred from the Preceding Discourse

The expression of prayer is a gift inseparable from the internal work of the Spirit. Owen, however, combats the claim that everyone with the grace therefore has the gift, and vice versa. It is true that “all those in whom the Spirit of God does graciously act faith, love, delight, desire, in a way of prayer unto God, have an ability from him to express themselves in vocal prayer.” Though it does not follow that everyone who appears to have the gift also has the grace. For instance, the unregenerate can publicly pray unto the edification of others. Interestingly, Owen does explicitly allow for unvocal prayer, but insists that even this must still be expressed in words in the mind. The significance of this point becomes apparent in chapter 10. Like all other spiritual duties, we need the Spirit in prayer’s faithful completion, otherwise nothing would exist to separate the regenerate and unregenerate exercise of it. Further, the effects of prayer are so great that it would be impious not to attribute it to God. Prayer is a gift from God from beginning to end.

The duties that follow from Owen’s conception of prayer add up to glorifying God for the great privilege the Spirit of grace and supplication brings and its diligent use. Owen describes the appropriate exercise of prayer and divides the topic into three parts. First, it is our duty to use the gift to the inestimable advantage for our own souls. Second, the duty includes our natural faculties. Owen states that prayer “is freely bestowed, but it is carefully to be preserved. It is a gospel talent given to be traded with, and thereby to be increased.” This includes constant consideration and observation of ourselves and the Scripture, which serves as a mirror, presenting both what we are and what we ought to be. It entails meditation on God’s glorious excellencies and the mediation and intercession of Christ. It requires frequency in exercise and constant fervency and intention of mind and spirit. Third, it is our duty to use prayer unto the ends for which it is bestowed by God. Prayer is a means to stir up faith, love, delight, joy, and the like, as well as to benefit others, specifically our families, churches, and societies. With this exhortation to faithfulness in the duties of prayer, Owen concludes his unified argument regarding the Spirit’s role in prayer to focus on two parentheses, mental and prescribed forms of prayer.

Chapter 10: Of Mental Prayer as Pretended Unto by Some in the Church of Rome

Owen sets his sights in chapter 10 pointedly on mental prayer as it exists in the Church of Rome. Cressy’s definition of mental prayer, in The Church-History of Brittany, the work that inspired Owen’s treatise, is “pure spiritual prayer, or a quiet repose of contemplation; that which excludes all images of the fancy, and in time all perceptible actuations of the understanding, and is exercised in signal elevations of the will, without any force at all, yet with admirable efficacy.” It requires “an entire calmness and even death of the passions, a perfect purity in the spiritual affections of the will, and an entire abstraction from all creatures.”3 In opposition to this concept, Owen insists on the use of the intellect. The experience of true prayer is through the faculties of the soul; it does not circumvent them. It is not as if we can pray in our “will and its affections without any actings of the mind or understanding.” Further, so-called mental prayer is impossible to verify, given that it brings no benefit or edification to the church or any member of it. Owen warns, “The use of words is necessary in this duty, from the nature of the duty itself, the command of God, and the edification of the church.” Whatever mental prayer is, in Owen’s estimation, it is not true prayer.

Chapter 11: Prescribed Forms of Prayer Examined

In his final chapter, Owen handles prescribed forms of prayer, attending to their origin, supposed advantages, and lawfulness. The origin of prescribed forms is clearly human, for the Spirit is not promised to assist in their composition. As to the claimed advantages, for those who have the gift of free prayer by the Spirit, there is none. For those with a comparably low ability to pray for themselves, there is also no benefit, for set forms will only keep them from maturing. For those who do not yet have a desire to pray, other means are at their disposal, including the sincere consideration of themselves and Scripture and the ordinary means of grace. For those that claim personal experience of spiritual advantage, Owen refrains from disputing this, but points rather to God’s gracious blessing of his children, even when they fail to order everything according to his word. As to the lawfulness of prescribed forms, Owen comes short of condemning them as unlawful in themselves, at which point he only alludes to the regulative principle of worship but does not pursue it. Owen leaves room for the lawful private use of prescribed forms, though he is suspicious of the benefit even in this setting, while he would prefer their exclusion from public worship.

The Holy Spirit as a Comforter (1693)

In his treatise The Holy Spirit as a Comforter, Owen handles the signally Puritan topic of assurance. Owen is concerned to offer the believer the comfort in life and in death that can come only from the Spirit himself. At the same time, he elevates ordinary believers through his discussion of the anointing of the Spirit, a conspicuously Protestant motif. This treatise perhaps also best illustrates, in this volume, Owen as expositor of Scripture, as he carefully exegetes what Scripture means in reference to the Spirit as unction, seal, and earnest.

Chapter 1: The Holy Ghost the Comforter of the Church by Way of Office

Owen’s work on the Holy Spirit as comforter proceeds in three stages. He first defines the office, then discusses its discharge, and then follows with a description of its effects.

Chapter 1 handles the office, working through the four things that constitute any office. First, there is the trust. The Spirit has the comfort, consolation, and support of believers entrusted to him. Christ’s ascension did not mean that he stopped loving and caring for his disciples. He had to go to make intercession for them, which was part of his work that remained toward God. The other part of his remaining work respects the church and individual believers, which he gave to the Spirit. While the Spirit did not commence being comforter when Jesus left, he was at that time promised to be the comforter. Regenerate people were unaware of his ministry or dispensation beforehand. So Christ is still comforter, but by his Spirit.

A mission, name, and work are the three other elements constituting an office. The Spirit’s special mission consists of his commissioning to be comforter by the Father and Son. His special name is Paraclete, found first in John 14:16. It is not distinctive with respect to his person, but denominative with respect to his work, used by Jesus as a proper name with respect to his office. The concept of comforter is principally ascribed to the Spirit in this name. The whole context of the promise in John 14–16 verifies this. As our “advocate,” as the word is often rendered, he offers consolation—not, of course, as an advocate with God, but for the church in, with, and against the world. The Spirit serves as our advocate by undertaking our protection and defense. And he does so in three primary ways. First, by suggesting and supplying pleas and arguments to witnesses resulting in the conviction of their opponents. Second, in and by his communication of spiritual gifts, both extraordinary and ordinary, with their effects visible to the world. Third, by the internal efficacy of the preached word—namely, conviction, which effects either belief or rejection. The final aspect of an office is a special work. For the Spirit as comforter, this is “to support, cherish, relieve, and comfort the church, in all trials and distresses.” This will be more fully expressed in Owen’s discussion of particular effects of the office.

Chapter 2: General Adjuncts or Properties of the Office of a Comforter, as Exercised by the Holy Spirit

In chapter 2, Owen treats the discharge of this office, which includes four primary features. One of the properties of the office is infinite condescension. The Spirit’s work as comforter is on behalf of men and women, individual human beings, sinful individuals at that. Another property is unspeakable love, as he works by tenderness and compassion. This is fitting given Trinitarian relations:

In all the actings of the Holy Ghost toward us, and especially in this of his susception of an office on the behalf of the church, which is the foundation of them all, his love is principally to be considered, and that he chooses this way of acting and working toward us to express his peculiar, personal character, as he is the eternal love of the Father and the Son.

Benefits, gifts, or kindnesses bring comfort or consolation only if they proceed from love. And there was indeed infinite love in the acceptation of this office by the Spirit.4 A third property is power, infinite power as the foundation for unshakable consolation. Only divine power can alleviate consciences and bring full assurance, driving away the disconsolations believers face. Only omnipotence can overcome the opposition from Satan. Finally, an unchangeable dispensation is a feature of the office of comforter. To whom the Spirit is given, he abides with forever, which is true both for individuals and the church unto the consummation of all things.

Chapter 3: Unto Whom the Holy Spirit Is Promised and Given as a Comforter; or the Object of His Acting in This Office

Chapters 3 and 4 transition to the effects of the Spirit’s role as comforter with an assertion about whom the Spirit is given to and an explanation of his inhabitation of recipients. Chapter 3 argues that only believers are given the Spirit. Owen says it this way: “All his actings and effects as a comforter are confined unto them that believe, and do all suppose saving faith as antecedent unto them.” This is not the first saving work, however. Regeneration precedes it, for “he comforts none but those whom he has before sanctified.”

Chapter 4: Inhabitation of the Spirit the First Thing Promised

Inhabitation, or indwelling, is the great foundational privilege upon which all others depend. Owen carefully distinguishes what the indwelling of the Spirit is from what it is not. This inhabitation is not the Spirit’s essential omnipresence, or an expression of the cause for the effect, or a hypostatic union. Neither is it a union or relation immediately between the Spirit and believers, who are related in such a way to Christ. Rather, it is the actual person of the Holy Spirit who is promised to believers. The fact that he inhabits so many at one time illustriously demonstrates his eternal glory. This indwelling is the spring of his gracious operations in us; it is “the hidden spring and cause of that inexpressible distance and difference that is between believers and the rest of the world.” The person of the Spirit inhabits believers as the promised comforter.

Chapter 5: Particular Actings of the Holy Spirit as a Comforter

The final three chapters of Owen’s treatise describe three particular ways the Spirit comforts—as an unction, a seal, and an earnest. The Spirit as unction, or the Spirit’s anointing, is the first in natural order. Owen constructs a biblical argument for what this anointing consists in, contrasting this with arguments that the anointing is the doctrine of the gospel, the testimony of the Spirit to the truth of the gospel, or the chrism (anointing in the rites of baptism, confirmation, and holy orders) and extreme unction (anointing the sick and dying) of the Church of Rome. Owen provides a biblical theology of anointing, beginning with the claim that all things dedicated or consecrated in the Old Testament were anointed with oil. All such types were fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the anointed one, whose anointing was with the Spirit. The unction of Christ consisted in the full communication of the Spirit in all his graces and gifts needed in Christ’s human nature and for his work. Though this was essentially a single work, it was carried out, of course, in degrees. Believers have their unction immediately from Christ, consisting in the communication of the Spirit. It is like Christ’s, but to an inferior degree. The Spirit’s “first, peculiar, special effect as an unction”—and here Owen references his previous treatises The Reason of Faith and Causes, Ways, and Means—“is his teaching of us the truths and mysteries of the gospel by saving illumination.” This anointing also dedicates believers as kings and priests, a dedication unto God, resulting in special privilege. From 1 John 2:20, 27, Owen concludes that the principal benefit of the Spirit as unction is the stability of belief. This anointing is “an effectual means of their preservation, when a trial of their stability in the truth shall befall them.” Further, “nothing will give stability in all seasons but the wisdom and knowledge which are the effects of this teaching,” teaching which includes “all things,” or the whole life of faith, including joy and consolation.

Chapter 6: The Spirit a Seal, and How

Owen is not entirely satisfied with comparisons to human sealing in attempting to understand the Spirit as a seal. For example, discussions of the Spirit putting forth his power in the preservation of believers, as in something highly valuable being sealed up for safety and inviolability, fall short of the rich meaning of sealing. Rather, Owen compares the sealing of believers with the sealing of Christ, which demonstrated God’s owning of him, his approbation of him, and manifested that God the Father would take care of Christ and preserve him. He summarizes,

This sealing of the Son is the communication of the Holy Spirit in all fullness unto him, authorizing him unto, and acting his divine power in, all the acts and duties of his office, so as to evidence the presence of God with him, and his approbation of him, as the only person that was to distribute the spiritual food of their souls unto men.

Owen then defines the Spirit’s sealing of believers as God’s “gracious communication of the Holy Ghost unto them, so to act his divine power in them as to enable them unto all the duties of their holy calling, evidencing them to be accepted with him both unto themselves and others, and asserting their preservation unto eternal salvation.” In both the case of Christ and believers, the sealing is the communication of the Spirit unto them, and the effects are the gracious operations of the Spirit, enabling them to live according to their radical callings. For believers specifically, God, by the sealing of the Spirit, gives testimony that they are his, assurance of that relationship, and evidence to the world, while also protecting them unto final consummation.

Chapter 7: The Spirit an Earnest, and How

When discussing the Spirit as an earnest, Owen is again unsatisfied with human illustrations, this time with transactional language. The Spirit is really neither a pledge or collateral, nor an earnest or down payment, as if God is somehow in anyone’s debt or as if a business deal has been struck. Giving security to something future is as far as the metaphor goes. In God’s case, he is unilaterally bestowing grace. Believers are given a foretaste of the future now by the Holy Spirit, who also guarantees that future. The Spirit is an “earnest,” Owen’s preferred term, of our inheritance, which, under forfeiture, needed to be purchased for us by Christ. “The way whereby we come to have an interest in Christ, and thereby a right unto the inheritance, is by the participation of the Spirit of Christ,” argues Owen. By communication of the Spirit, we are made joint heirs with Christ; therefore, he is the earnest of our inheritance. He is the firstfruits of the full harvest to come, a spiritual and eternal redemption. In Owen’s estimation, nothing could be more comforting.

A Discourse of Spiritual Gifts (1693)

In Owen’s analysis of spiritual gifts, he has two primary aims. First, to explain what spiritual gifts are, distinguishing the ordinary from the extraordinary gifts, the latter being no longer operative. And second, to elevate the ordinary gifts as the God-given, sufficient means for building the church. These purposes arose out of the enthusiasm found in the seventeenth-century religious sects, as well as the prevalent charismatic manifestations. They also explain the rise of the Roman Catholic Church, for it was the neglect of the ordinary gifts that resulted in that sacramental institution. And it was the misguided grasping at the extraordinary gifts that occasioned superstition and endless miracle accounts there. As Owen completes his objectives, he protects the balance between the inward and outward call to ministry and insists that the ministry of the gospel cannot be done in human power.

Chapter 1: Spiritual Gifts, Their Names and Significations

Owen’s examination of spiritual gifts consists of brief discussions of their name and nature, followed by a treatment of their distribution as both extraordinary and ordinary, which forms the body of the treatise. The definition Owen provides is this: spiritual gifts “are free and undeserved effects of divine bounty.” From the human perspective, they are spiritual powers aimed at a certain end. But most basically, they are undeserved gifts. To get at the nature of spiritual gifts, Owen enumerates the similarities and differences with saving graces. The commonalities are three. First, both spiritual gifts and saving graces are purchased by Christ for his church. Christ distributes gifts as the only legitimate weapons of the warfare that consists in the establishing and edifying of the church. Second, they share the same immediate efficient cause. They both are wrought by the power of the Holy Spirit. Third, they both are designed unto the good, benefit, ornament, and glory of the church. Grace gives the church an invisible life; gifts give it a visible profession. In Owen’s words, “That profession which renders a church visible according to the mind of Christ, is the orderly exercise of the spiritual gifts bestowed on it, in a conversation evidencing the invisible principle of saving grace.”

Chapter 2: Differences between Spiritual Gifts and Saving Grace

The differences between spiritual gifts and saving graces are seven. Graces are the fruit of the Spirit; gifts are the effects of his operation. Graces proceed from electing love, gifts from temporary election. Graces are the essential effects of the covenant; gifts are part of the outward administration. Graces proceed from the priestly office of Christ, gifts from his kingly office. Graces cannot be lost, though they can decay, while gifts can be taken away. Graces are bestowed primarily for the individual’s good, gifts for the benefit of others. Principally, graces possess the whole soul, whereas gifts are present in the mind or theoretical intellect, meaning that while grace necessarily transforms the soul and its presence guarantees that one belongs to Christ, the same cannot be said of gifts. Here Owen protects the distinction between the invisible and visible church and makes sense of false professors of Christianity who appear to be saved.

Chapter 3: Of Gifts and Offices Extraordinary; and First of Offices

Transitioning to extraordinary spiritual gifts, Owen explains first extraordinary offices, then the gifts themselves and their origin, duration, use, and end. Offices in general exist whenever there is power and a duty to be performed by it. Extraordinary offices include also an extraordinary call and the bestowal of extraordinary power. The three extraordinary offices are apostle, evangelist, and prophet. Owen explains the special calling and exceptional power attached to each office.

Chapter 4: Of Extraordinary Spiritual Gifts

The extraordinary gifts themselves are listed in 1 Corinthians 12:4–11. At the outset of the discussion of this list, Owen distinguishes between gifts that exceed the whole power and faculties of humanity, including miracles and healings, and endowments and improvements of the faculties of the minds of men, such as wisdom, knowledge, and utterance. This distinction is significant because the latter gifts differ only in degree from the ordinary gifts continually dispensed throughout the history of the church. The first gift in Paul’s list is word of wisdom. Owen understands this as wisdom itself, specifically the wisdom promised to the apostles in the face of adversaries. It also includes special wisdom for the management of gospel truths for the edification of the church. Word of knowledge is “such a peculiar and special insight into the mysteries of the gospel, as whereby those in whom it was were enabled to teach and instruct others.” This was initially needed in the church by immediate revelation. Faith, often understood in the context of troubles and trials or suffering, is “a peculiar confidence, boldness, and assurance of mind in the profession of the gospel and the administration of its ordinances.” Gifts of healing are referenced in the plural because of their free communication unto many persons. They are distinct from miracles for several reasons. They are a sign unto believers, rather than unbelievers. There is a peculiar goodness and relief toward mankind in them. The kindness, love, and compassion demonstrated in them results in appreciation and obedience flowing from gratitude. Miracles are an immediate effect of divine power exceeding all created abilities. In the context of the early church, Owen claims, “this gift of miracles was exceedingly useful, and necessary unto the propagation of the gospel, the vindication of the truth, and the establishment of them that did believe.” Prophecy refers to both the faculty of prediction and the ability to declare the mind of God from the word by the special and immediate revelation of the Holy Spirit. Discerning of spirits was the ability to judge between the Spirit’s work and Satan’s plagiarized counterfeits. Finally, in reference to tongues and their interpretation, Owen asserts that tongues were sometimes understood by the speakers and the church and at other times not. While tongues were effectual for the propagation of the gospel to unbelievers, interpretation was added that the church might be edified by the gift.

Chapter 5: Of the Origin, Duration, Use, and End of Extraordinary Spiritual Gifts

The extraordinary gifts and extraordinary offices ended together, coinciding with the establishment of the early church. However, Owen does not rule out the possibility of God continuing to work miraculously. He says, “It is not unlikely but that God might on some occasions, for a longer season, put forth his power in some miraculous operations, and so he yet may do, and perhaps does sometimes.” When the extraordinary gifts were operative, they were the glory, honor, and beauty of the church. They were aimed at setting up, planting, advancing, and propagating the kingdom of Christ in the establishment of the church. Those chosen and called for this purpose were enabled by these gifts. Such persons were of course insufficient in themselves, as God purposed the gospel to suffer every disadvantage humanly speaking. It was by the gifts that preaching was rendered effectual. Miracles filled the world with an apprehension of the divine power accompanying the gospel and its preachers. The extraordinary spiritual gifts left no doubt that Christ and the message of his apostles were divine revelation.

Chapter 6: Of Ordinary Gifts of the Spirit

Owen initiates his discussion of the ordinary gifts of the Spirit in the context of the continuation of the ministry of the church. The designation of ordinary must not be understood as in any way pejorative or diminishing. Ordinary simply separates these gifts from the miraculous gifts. They differ only in degree from what the extraordinary office holders possessed. The term also designates the continued supply of gifts throughout the continuation of the ordinary state of the church. Before addressing the gifts themselves, Owen dissects the ministry itself. The ministry is itself Christ’s gift to the church, acquired by his humiliation and death, distributed when he ascended unto his exaltation, and consisting in spiritual gifts. The ministerial office continues as the spiritual gifts are continually dispensed and recognized by the church in its calling of ministers. The aim of the ministry is the edification of the church, through protection and the service of the word. The gifts of the Spirit enable ministers to discharge their responsibilities.

Chapter 7: Of Spiritual Gifts Enabling the Ministry to the Exercise and Discharge of Their Trust and Office

The ordinary spiritual gifts are much more than mere natural abilities, and they are antecedently necessary to legitimate a minister. In other words, they come from God, and therefore the outward call of the church alone, though essential, is insufficient. Owen’s main claim is this:

There is a special dispensation and work of the Holy Ghost in providing able ministers of the New Testament for the edification of the church, wherein the continuance of the ministry and being of the church, as to its outward order, does depend; and that herein he does exert his power and exercise his authority in the communication of spiritual gifts unto men, without a participation whereof no man has de jure, any lot or portion in this ministration.

Owen supports this claim with an argument of eight propositions:

1. Christ has promised to be present with his church.

2. This promised presence is by his Spirit.

3. It is secured by an everlasting, unchangeable covenant.

4. The gospel is called the ministration of the Spirit and ministers of it the ministers of the Spirit.

5. The end for which the Spirit is promised is the preservation of the church in the world.

6. The communication of gifts is the means to this end.

7. As such, they are indispensable for gospel administrations.

8. And all of this is demonstrably true in the experience of the church in any age.

But what of the actual ordinary gifts of the Spirit?

Chapter 8: Of the Gifts of the Spirit with Respect unto Doctrine, Worship, and Rule

Owen concludes his treatise with a taxonomy of ministerial gifts. There are three categories, gifts that pertain to the doctrine, worship, and rule of the church.

First, gifts concerning doctrine help accomplish the primary duty of the ministry—namely, the dispensation of the doctrine of the gospel to the church through preaching. The Spirit gives wisdom, knowledge, or understanding—all designations of the same concept—of the mysteries of the gospel. These can be distinguished, but all speak to acquaintance with and comprehension of doctrine necessary for preaching. In short, the Spirit provides

such a comprehension of the scope and end of the Scripture, of the revelation of God therein, such an acquaintance with the systems of particular doctrinal truths, in their rise, tendency, and use, such a habit of mind in judging of spiritual things, and comparing them one with another, such a distinct insight into the springs and course of the mystery of the love, grace, and will of God in Christ, as enables them in whom it is to declare the counsel of God, to make known the way of life, of faith and obedience unto others, and to instruct them in their whole duty to God and man thereon.

The Spirit also gives skill in dividing the word properly, in culling doctrines from the biblical text and applying them. To do this aright, the minister must be well acquainted with his flock and aware of how God’s grace operates on minds and hearts, the nature of temptation and the obstacles to faith and obedience, and spiritual diseases and remedies. The last gift concerning preaching is the gift of utterance. Far from natural speaking ability, the gift of utterance is freedom in the declaration of truth—holy confidence, authority, and gravity in expression.

The remaining ministerial gifts are those touching worship and the rule of the church. The gifts concerning worship can be summarized under the heading “prayer,” which includes confession, supplication, thanks, and praise. Owen does not treat this in any length but rather points the reader to his The Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer. Gifts concerning the rule of the church are spiritual, with nothing in common with the administration of the powers of the world. They consist in the “humble, holy, spiritual application of the word of God or rules of the gospel” to the church.

The ministry gifts that fall into these three categories are dispensed to church members at large as well. When gifts are attached to duties rather than offices, as in the case of ministers, they are to be exercised in the building up of the body. The gifts are not communicated by extraordinary infusion. They are not attainable in people’s diligence alone. But means are ordinarily used in their realization and growth. The gifts ought to be prepared for through the inculcation of humility, meekness, and teachability. They ought to be prayed for and faithfully exercised when granted. Ministry, true ministry, the kind that does in fact build the church and further the cause of the gospel, cannot be done in human power.

1  This was published by Nathaniel Ponder, who published several of Owen’s works and John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. Owen, in fact, may have introduced Ponder to Bunyan. See N. H. Keeble, “Bunyan’s Literary Life,” in The Cambridge Companion to Bunyan, ed. Anne Dunan-Page (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 18.

2  All italics in quotations from Owen appear in the original.

3  Serenus Cressy, The Church-History of Brittany, or England, from the Beginning of Christianity to the Norman Conquest (Rouen, 1668), preface, paras. 42–43; quoted in Owen.

4  For a discussion and critique of this Augustinian conception of the Spirit, see Colin Gunton, Theology through the Theologians: Selected Essays, 1972–1995 (London: T&T Clark, 2003), chap. 7.

A Discourse of the Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer

With a Brief Inquiry into

the Nature and Use of Mental Prayer and Forms.

By John Owen, D.D.

London, Printed for Nathaniel Ponder,

at the Sign of the Peacock, in the Poultry, near the Church:

1682

The Work of the Holy Spirit in Prayer

Contents

Preface to the Reader

 1  The Use of Prayer, and the Work of the Holy Spirit Therein

 2  Zechariah 12:10 Opened and Vindicated

 3  Galatians 4:6 Opened and Vindicated

 4  The Nature of Prayer: Romans 8:26 Opened and Vindicated

 5  The Work of the Holy Spirit as to the Matter of Prayer

 6  The Due Manner of Prayer, Wherein It Does Consist

 7  The Nature of Prayer in General, with Respect unto Forms of Prayer and Vocal Prayer: Ephesians 6:18 Opened and Vindicated

 8  The Duty of External Prayer by Virtue of a Spiritual Gift Explained and Vindicated

 9  Duties Inferred from the Preceding Discourse

10  Of Mental Prayer as Pretended Unto by Some in the Church of Rome

11  Prescribed Forms of Prayer Examined

Preface to the Reader

It is altogether needless to premise anything in this place concerning the necessity, benefit, and use of prayer in general. All men will readily acknowledge that as without it there can be no religion at all, so the life and exercise of all religion does principally consist therein. Wherefore, that way and profession in religion which gives the best directions for it, with the most effectual motives unto it, and most abounds in its observance, has therein the advantage of all others. Hence also it follows, that as all errors which either pervert its nature or countenance a neglect of a due attendance unto it are pernicious in religion; so differences in opinion, and disputes about any of its vital concerns, cannot but be dangerous and of evil consequence. For on each hand these pretend unto an immediate regulation of Christian practice in a matter of the highest importance unto the glory of God and the salvation of the souls of men. Whereas, therefore, there is nothing more requisite in our religion than that true apprehensions of its nature and use be preserved in the minds of men, the declaration and defense of them, when they are opposed or unduly traduced,1 is not only justifiable but necessary also.

This is the design of the ensuing discourse. There is in the Scripture a promise of the Holy Ghost to be given unto the church as “a Spirit of grace and of supplications.”2